


Stranded AU

by MaxKowarth



Series: Stranded AU - Big Finish [2]
Category: Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: AU at any moment, Audio Series: Stranded (Doctor Who), Background Character Death, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Isolation, Lockdown Fic, Mental Health Issues, Missing Persons, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24378601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaxKowarth/pseuds/MaxKowarth
Summary: Only the Doctor could strand them in the middle of a Pandemic.Liv returns from her shift feeling very much alone.Helen witnesses a brand new take on 'missing persons'Is anyone safe?
Relationships: Liv Chenka/Helen Sinclair
Series: Stranded AU - Big Finish [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032525
Comments: 30
Kudos: 10





	1. Home Time

Liv Chenka slipped quietly through the front door of the Baker street flats. She moved directly to the door to her room and locked it behind her before removing the gloves.  
She swore at the opening on the bag hung on the back of the door but eventually slotted the sticky latex away.  
On the dresser by the door was a large ceramic bowl she had filled with tepid water that morning. She rinsed her hands and soaped up to her elbows for the umpteenth time today. Only then did she remove the face mask, clean that through and add the filter to the bag with the gloves.

It had been 3 months since they had become stranded in 21st century London. She was already arranging cover at St Gart’s Brookside on the Southbank when the pandemic hit and it was all hands on deck.  
It was a far cry from bio-modelling or remote operating. Medicine at St Gart’s was ahead of its time but compared to her training on Kaldor they may as well have asked Picasso to daub mammoths with his hands.  
But the work remained the same. It was still people, needing help. People needing to be put back together when they didn’t understand they had come apart, patients and staff

-  
Liv stripped. Placing her travel clothes in the other bag next to bed and pulled out some leggings and t-shirt.  
She sat on the end of the bed, checked her messages (a fruitless exercise as they mostly from the Doctor and largely out of date) then tossed the phone towards the pillow.  
She sat, staring at her hands. They were a pale sweaty colour from 17 hours in plastic gloves.  
Who was going to put her back together when the seams started to unravel?  
It wasn’t that long ago that she had been shot, fate stepped in that time. Her death hadn’t been unwritten, she could still feel the hot lead tearing through her and she still woke in the night with her every nerve ending on fire. She told herself this was why she had accepted the longer shifts. But she knew that was a lie.  
Everyone who could was working to stop the effects of the disease. But in theses primitive times and with so little knowledge of the enemy those on the frontline were fighting a losing battle.  
Her hands swam back into focus at the sound of a tap against her window. She looked over her shoulder to be met by the smiling face of Helen Sinclair. Liv sighed and forced herself to smile back.  
Helen was speaking but Liv couldn’t make out any of it. She tried miming the point until she picked up her phone and called her friend.  
-  
‘Liv! I thought I heard you get back, how was it?’ Helen was happy, earnest and concerned all at once.  
‘Oh, you know, deadly dull.’ Liv replied as obliquely as she could. ‘How about you? The Doctor’s not burnt the place down yet I see.’  
Helen laughed and the sight brought a faint smile to Liv’s lips. Helen deserved to laugh.  
‘I haven’t seen him for a couple of days, off with his dolly policeman.’ She swapped her phone between ears, pushing hair out of the way. ‘I hoped you’d have been home by 8. You missed the clapping.’  
‘Yeah, well.’ Liv steeled herself against her automatic reply to the wasted gesture ‘I’ve got to give you something to clap for first, yeah?’  
‘Oh Liv, I will always applaud you.’ Helen smiled fondly at Liv appreciated the moment. ‘Now, its Chinese tonight. That’s the pink menu. Let me know what you want by half past would you?’

With the moment gone Liv moved back to search through her selection of menus. ‘Pink, right, got it. I’ll send you a text?’  
‘Sooner the better.’ That was usually the end of the conversation but when Liv looked back Helen was still there, hand on the window. Silently Liv moved to replicate the gesture.  
‘I miss you, but you’re doing the right thing’  
‘Yeah? Could I have that in writing for my supervisor?’  
‘Will they accept it on the packet for the take away?’ Helen laughed and blew a kiss.  
Liv watched her go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wouldn't leave me alone. It feels like the start of something bigger. Perhaps it will be, let me know in the comments :)


	2. Home Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Helen's side of events

Helen Sinclair slumped in the hallway on the other side of Liv’s door.

Seeing Liv always lifted her spirits and yet walking the few paces along the corridor toward the front of the house had been enough to drain it all away.  
She could tell, in truth she had been able to from the second they had met, that Liv was in pain. Not just physically exhausted but drained.

Helen could sympathise but with it came a tidal wave of impostor syndrome. She had found work when they arrived only for the post to be dissolved by April. She’d helped the Doctor to start with until this current missing persons business, but increasingly she found herself as the hub of activity in the flats. 

So she had turned her energies to keeping up morale, she had sewn face masks, fundraised and had been quite the force on arranging V.E day celebrations. Too many of the people she had known in her life before the Doctor had been effected by the war, she felt she owed them her thanks, even if most of them were no longer around to hear.  
But she wasn’t helping the situation, not like Liv. 

She knew it was selfish but she wanted Liv to give it up. Stay home, with her. At least long enough to give her a hug and tell her it will be alright.  
Her phone jolted her back to the real world and she smiled at the curt meal order with the bizarre selection of emoji. Liv was from the future and Helen had mistakenly assumed she knew what she was doing with this form of communication.  
Helen herself had taken to it rapidly; it wasn’t that far from hieroglyphs after all. She replied with a flurry of flirting that made her blush, but she was confident Liv herself wouldn't understand.

She compiled the orders onto a notepad, called the Chinese and carefully described precisely what she required. Gave the details of the card the Doctor had left her and confirmed her address yet again. Her mental clock had started its countdown and she strode to her room to fetch her gloves and the wipes ready to make things safer for all inside.

She was still 5 minutes too early for the delivery by the time she arrived at the door. She spent the time listening to the hum of traffic that was still making itself known across the capital, even in lockdown. She closed her eyes as she listened, loosing herself only to be surprised by an amused cough of the scooter as her food arrived.

She waved to the driver as he took out the bag and placed it inside the curb. She took a step forward only for the driver to cry out.   
Before her very eyes the figure burst into a cloud of smoke, its clothes and scooter scattering across the road. Helen stared for the last 5 seconds of her countdown then reached for her phone


	3. Home Front

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor returns to the fray

Andy Davidson drew a deep breath and forced himself not to pluck at the mask which was irritating his nose.  
He pressed his mobile to his ear and listened to the rush of words that greeted his ‘ullo?’  
'What are you making the poor man deliver for, the shops...' Andy waved his hand north-eastward 'less than 5 minutes away!' he pressed the speakerphone button as The Doctor scowled at him.  
'We are supposed to Stay Home!' Helen yelled  
'I would bloody love to stay home but that's Cardiff for me love’

‘Helen, Helen, slow down. What’s all this about?’ The Doctor listened carefully to her reply before starting for the car. ‘Alright, take the dinner inside. Use it as a distraction, keep everyone in the house. We’re coming right back’  
‘You think there’s something dangerous outside the house?’ Andy asked as he clambered into the passenger seat.  
‘In the absence of any other data yes, I think our foe has done one of two things.’ The Doctor pulled away considerably faster than Andy was comfortable with while still explaining.  
‘Two things?’  
‘Yes, either they have made a massive mistake and given themselves away,’ the time lord tailed off as he wove through traffic.  
‘Or they haven’t?’ Guessed the policeman.  
‘OR they’ve chosen to call attention to themselves’  
‘Doesn’t that qualify as the same thing?’  
‘Ah, well, sometimes. And Sometimes they pull the rug out from under you and suddenly our missing persons is actually a covert massacre that we’re about to walk into the site of’ He flashed Andy a grin. For his part Sergeant Davison simply nodded.  
‘Oh. Right.’  
-

Liv Chenka was expecting the phone to ping with a txt to tell her that dinner was stood outside her door. So when it rang she was startled.  
‘What’s up?’ she asked, knowing that was the most likely explanation.  
‘We have a situation out front. The Doctor’s on his way back. Dinners by your door’ Helen sounded calm. Liv knew the tone all too well and decided to take its advice and not panic.  
‘I’ll be right out.’  
‘No that’s… ok, I’ll see you out there’  
-

Thus the scene that presented Sergeant Andy Davidson as he stepped from the car was Helen Sinclair stood by the entrance of the betting shop, Liv Chenka stood by the empty clothes, both eating satay noodles from separate boxes.  
He made his way to the curb near Helen and nodded reassuringly. Not that she needed reassurance; she was remarkably calm for a woman who had just seen someone turn to smoke.

‘So we can rule out one of them Teleport things then?’ He asked.  
‘Oh I should think so; they usually take the clothes with you, maybe even the scooter.’ The Doctor replied rather than Helen.  
‘Not always though. There was that time Helen and I…’ Liv started then blushed, ‘didn’t take the scooter’ she finished lamely.  
‘Any I.D. there? I should report the missing person at least.’ Andy suggested.  
'Nothing yet' The time lord began searching his own jacket pockets only to be interrupted by Liv ‘Chopstick?’  
‘Have you used it?’  
‘No, that’s why my chins covered in peanut butter sauce.’  
‘Oh, is that what it is?’ He had already lost interest and was using the chopstick to lift the fabric. Little billows of smoke drifted from the folds.

‘Is it The Eminence?’Liv asked, recalling their previous gaseous foe.  
‘No, no, no I shouldn’t think so. It... Well I hate to say it. This is more like condensation.’  
‘The poor man was boiled in the street?’ Helen asked  
‘Nah that would affect the clothes too.’  
‘Not if it was a flash fry, like they do with chocolate bars.’ Andy put forward. His three companions looked incredulously at him and he shrugged. ‘Just a thought.’ He moved to the scooter, trying to find I.D there.


	4. No place like Home

Andy retrieved a wallet from the shorts as the Doctor paced around the scene.  
‘I’ll pop up the shop. Let them know.’ He announced.  
‘I’ll come with you.’ Started Helen.  
‘I don’t think that’s wise, miss. I do have an official presence, of sorts. And as the prime witness you’ll be of far more use here.’

Helen was about to argue the point when Liv raised another possibility ‘What about the Master? They had that shrinking ray?’  
‘The TCE effects fabrics too, remember? If it had been them we’d be presented with a foot high representation of the victim, no, no. This is more…’ he floundered for the word and Liv glanced over to Helen. They held each other’s gaze with concern and failed to notice Andy sneak away.  
‘Flash fry? Like Sergeant Davidson suggested’ Helen finished.  
‘Mm maybe.’ His tone did not evoke confidence. ‘Tell me Helen, did you actually SEE a flash?  
‘No not really. It was more like one moment he was sat on the scooter and the next he was smoke. He even held his figure for a brief second then… ’ she waved her hands.

‘Poof?’ Suggested Liv. ‘Sounds to me like something occurred on a cellular level.’  
‘That does seem a sound hypothesis Liv. If only I had a sonic screwdriver I could analyse the area for energy particles.’  
‘What sort of energy would destroy a man at a cellular level while he’s stood in the street?’ Helen worried, equally intrigued and concerned.  
‘You want a list, we could be here a while’ Liv sighed. She didn’t need this. She needed her bed and more than 20 minutes sleep. She realised with a shock that she suddenly didn’t miss the old days at all. That had taken no time when she thought she’d never settle. Maybe her year at home had left her changed in more ways than she had expected.  
‘You could probably manage it with a domestic Microwave, a light switch and a bit of ingenuity’ The Doctor announced. 'Come on, this getting us nowhere, are there any more noodles?'

-

Sergeant Andy Davidson introduced himself with his most affable smile, followed it up with his carefully framed reassuring nod and explained that there had been an incident involving their driver. The manager had sighed and dropped the cod Chinese for his natural thick Geordie.  
‘Ah thought we’d had an end to the muggings like all them scooter gangs going after my lads. ‘Ow is he, did they hurt ‘im much when they took it?’  
‘Ah, well it’s not quite that sort of incident. The scooter’s fine, it’s your driver that’s missing.’  
From all of the reactions Andy was expecting ‘Not again’ was far from the top of the list.  
‘I think we need to take a seat.’ Andy suggested.

-

‘I think you need to take a seat’ Helen suggested to Liv as they arrived in the Doctor’s room.  
‘Fat chance of that’ she replied looking at the component strewn room. She lifted the door from a microwave off a bar stool and held it out. ‘A microwave and some ingenuity was that?’  
‘Hmm?’ The Doctor frowned and took the door from her. ‘Since when have I been the prime suspect?, Liv?’

‘Since forever. Wherever we go people think you’re behind it before we can prove otherwise. Maybe this is just my turn?’  
The time lord didn’t even bother to look hurt, just remained confused. Helen stepped between them, all thought of social distancing forgotten.  
‘Look, we’re all a bit frayed at the edges right now. I’ll fetch you some dinner and you can tell Liv what you thinks happening.’  
‘I’d rather he didn’t. It’s not the priority here. People are dying.’ She took an angry step forward and found Helen’s palm on her chest. This time, when their eyes met, the message passed between them held far less hope. Liv stepped back, her attention still on her friend. ‘Whatever, good luck, I have to work in the morning.’

Helen watched Liv wordlessly stomp from the room, her hand still held up against that briefest, head swimmingly intense touch. The first time in countless days they had meaningful contact and it was to break up a fight.  
She could hear the Doctor calling after Liv but knew it was pointless. She sighed deeply and took a step toward the door.  
‘I’ll find the food.’ She said almost to prompt herself as she left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have heard the opening excerpt to the first Stranded episode now.  
> Tiny things taken from it. This still remains very much AU however.


	5. Home Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Our hero's learn the mechanism of the disappearances, but are they in time?

Liv slammed her door shut and took several deep breathes. Her hand moved to her chest where Helen’s had been and she debated the paranoia of washing again.  
Instead she pulled off the shirt and threw it at the end of the bed.  
This whole bloody planet was insane and this time she didn’t have a date on which she could reasonably expect to escape.

She dug her phone from her pocket and put it on the desk, stripping the leggings and flinging them after the shirt with not quite enough force so they fell short. Retrieving the phone she sat on the floor next to the bed in search of the charger cable. Once connected, she opened the contacts window and her thumb hovered over Helen’s name for an eternity.  
-

Helen had returned to the Doctor’s room just in time to be grabbed by the shoulders, almost dropping the carrier bag.  
‘Organic Distillation! Very 51st century, Magnus Greel used it… No, no, no wait that can’t be it. That left a body, hence the rats.’  
‘I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about Doctor. Here, there’s some Shanghai beef and cashews and whatever these free things are’  
‘You have free food?’  
‘Well it’s a box I didn’t order; Liv said they were prawn balls?’ She offered up the cardboard carton and the Doctor sniffed at it.  
‘Helen, I want you to listen to me very carefully. Put that box on the table and back very slowly toward the door.’ His tone was grave and his eyes narrowed, kept entirely on the box in her hand even after she had obeyed him.  
‘You can’t suspect Prawns have something to do with people turning to smoke, Doctor?’ She hadn’t meant it to sound like a question but her worry tinged the sentence.  
‘There’s a distinct scent of the multidimensional. Helen quickly, was this box open when it arrived?’ He had found a plastic ruler from somewhere and used it to carefully lift the lid  
‘Yes, I think so. I didn’t think about it.’ If there was more to her sentence it was lost as her eyes widened with the memory of unpacking the meal and Liv putting one of the rolls on her plate. Wordlessly she ran for the back door and the window to her friend’s room.

-  
Andy pounded the street at full pelt, almost dropping the door key as he arrived at 107.  
‘Oh come on; please be in time, please be in time.’ The door gave under his hurried attentions and he dashed up the stairs to the Doctor’s room, relieved to find it standing open.  
‘It’s the balls!’ he gasped.

The time lord turned to look at him. He had been peering into a cardboard box and Andy realised he had almost been out of time.  
‘Don’t touch them, the manager at the Chinese was sent them as a promotion. I think the drivers had been…’  
‘Snacking, knowing no one would lose out, yes. Well done Sergeant Davidson, we have the same conclusion. How many people took advantage of the offer Helen?’ The Doctor repeated her name before realising she wasn’t present.  
-  
Helen pressed her face to the window pane, yelling Liv’s name as loud as her lungs would allow.  
Steadily the shadows inside resolved into a clearer picture. The bed was empty; a shirt crumpled at the end, leggings a pool on the floor.  
Helen was stunned into silence.  
She was too late.


	6. Home of our Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor has found a solution, so have Liv & Helen.

It was not in Helen Sinclair’s nature to give up, particularly where Liv Chenka was concerned.  
This was how she found herself trying to break down the door to her room. The first thump was a shock that she was sure would bruise but nothing moved.  
She took all two steps back and launched herself once more at the door.  
The door that was opening in front of her, a scowling Liv in just her knickers straight ahead.

She wasn’t certain which of them made the most noise as they collided and toppled back to the floor beside the bed. Helen blinked, uncertain how she had ended up on the bottom.  
Liv gasped, starring at the tear stained cheeks of her best friend.

Both of them sorted through the questions they had for the other in the same time and started speaking at once, apologised at once and were about to start questions again when Helen grabbed Liv’s head and stopped all conversation with a kiss

-

This was how Andy and the Doctor found them moments later.  
‘Oh, err, right’ was the policeman’s immediate, slightly uncomfortable reaction.  
The time lord ignored it and fetched up Liv’s plate with untouched prawn ball in the centre ‘Yes! Yes, this will do, come on, we need to find a microscope!’ He strode back to his room with prize in hand. Andy stood watching until one of the women groaned at which point he diplomatically closed the door behind him.

-  
‘I don’t want to sound thick, Doctor, but you have a box of them prawn balls right there, what’s so special about this one?’ Andy pondered as he watched the Doctor shuffle through his erratic possessions.  
‘Two things really; one) proximity to Artron energy from Liv, two) Liv’s from the future and her biology should be distinctive enough that I can rule it out from anything else I find on the other control specimens and three… ‘He tailed off as he squinted at the prawn ball, delicately dissecting it.  
‘I thought you said there were only two?’  
‘Yes, well three, its cold. Feel the box’ he nodded at the carton of remaining prawn balls.  
‘I’d rather not, all the same’ Andy indeed took an involuntary step back.  
‘It’s still warm. Now I know these chefs are formidable, I made pinyin in the 6th century, tiny little shacks on the docks and…’  
‘You think these things are antiques?’ Andy interrupted.  
‘No, Sergeant, just adding a little colour.’ The Doctors sighed as he prepared his slide.  
‘Hey, that’s a point. Why aren’t these pink? Prawns are pink aren’t they?’  
‘I wondered when you’d spot that,’ the Doctor’s grin was evident in his tone ‘Well done, we’ll make an inspector of you yet! Our first clue was when Helen wasn’t certain what these were. But Liv recognised them.’  
‘Oh that could just be that Ms Chenka’s eaten more Chinese though.’ Andy scoffed.  
‘Or that she’s familiar with the same recipe from a different order of Palaemonidae’  
‘Prawn?’  
‘Yes... and what’s more, ‘he peered through the microscope then moved aside and waved Andy to take his place, ‘a non terrestrial species.’  
‘Brilliant, So I get to put alien prawns on my missing persons report?’  
-

Liv was the first to break the kiss as she had started to run out of air. She lifted her head and stared down at the flushed face of Helen.  
She had so many questions, most of which she had the answers for as they were just the same things she had been thinking.  
She was almost disappointed that the first thing out of her mouth was ‘Do you want to get off the floor?’

Helen smiled and nodded, particularly aware right now of where Liv’s knee had ended up.  
Liv stood and grabbed for the abandoned t shirt on the end of the bed. The sight of it jogged Helen’s memory and she slumped to the edge of the bed despondently.  
‘Oh god, I thought you were dead’  
‘I was charging the phone.’ Liv admitted while her brain put the clues together. ‘OH! Oh the clothes’ She tugged the shirt back over her chest and sat next to her Helen, arm around her. It was far too late for the 2 metre rule now.  
‘Prawn balls, The Doctor…’ Helen started and found, quite to her surprise, that Liv was kissing her again. And she quite forgot all about the Doctor, missing persons or the sight of a nearly naked Liv pressed above her.  
Well, maybe not that last bit, she was never going to forget that.  


Liv let all the months of separation, the years of yearning, the seconds of need pour into the second kiss.  
She had no way of knowing if Helen recognised how much of this dated back to the first rush of her friend seeing totally through her at the British Museum.  
Helen might have just been thinking about the last few weeks of separation, Liv reasoned.

Helen was thinking about the aeons that had passed between them, the missed opportunities for this very contact.  
She wasn’t thinking about grasping Liv’s T-Shirt and pulling it free of her again.  
She wasn’t thinking about how easily Liv let her do just that or the feel of her flushed breast against Helen’s lips seconds later.

Liv decided thinking was overrated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a good chance the story may end here, at least until the REAL Stranded is out in the wild.
> 
> Comment below if you feel that's just paranoia on my part.


	7. Behind Closed Doors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Helen and Liv are interrupted - The Doctor makes a breakthrough

Helen Sinclair’s world consisted solely of the presence of Liv Chenka. The hidden acknowledgement that she would do anything for her best friend had flipped to become anything to her instead.

The soft heave of her breast under Helen’s lips consumed her thoughts as she trailed kisses down under the curves ahead of her. Her tongue flicked mischievously at a mole as she changed direction, moving over the full weight of Liv’s breast. She knew she would feel guilty later but she resigned herself to dealing with it then. She may never get another chance to worship her best friend like this.

Liv Chenka knew this was long overdue. Her fingers sought all the places that could urge Helen on to greater exploration, something she desperately wanted. Her other hand sought the pins she knew would be holding Helen’s hair.  
Even in this state of bliss part of her knew not to discard them on the bed or floor.  
Another part of her flinched at the word floor and she wondered why.  
Then she remembered what she had been doing on the floor at precisely the moment a warm rich voice boomed ‘What the hell?’ from the doorway.

Helen froze, her tongue extend just short of Liv’s belly button, her hair strewn around her casting a curtain between her startled face and the figure in the doorway.  
‘Oh hey, Tania. Come on in.’ Liv told her with just a hint of her usual sarcasm. ‘I guess you heard the thumping?’  
‘I am just next door, yeah. I thought…’ She paused ‘I don’t know what I thought.’  
‘Helen was concerned, about the balls.’  
‘I think she got the wrong room.’ Tania snapped nervously, making Liv laugh. Liv pushed a little with the hand she still had in Helen’s hair.   
‘Are you going to join us or what?’ Liv asked.   
The expression on both Helen and Tania’s face were identical.

-  
‘Eureka!’ the Doctor exclaimed as he leapt from his microscope.   
‘To be fair, I have been in this uniform for three days straight.’ Andy nodded.  
‘No, it’s Greek for this bath is too hot.’ The time lord failed to explain. ‘Wormhole Beetles’  
‘Beetles, is that what these are? Not prawns after all?’  
‘Yes! Top of the class, similar genetics but not water breathers, instead they ingest the very fabric of reality, reshaping the seams between universes as they go! Fantastic creatures, very cute antenna if I remember.’

‘I take it these fellas don’t have natural predators then?’ Andy reasoned.   
‘No, why should they?’  
‘Well if they turn you to smoke when you eat em…’  
‘Oh, a defensive mechanism you mean? No, no, no, I should say they are more likely to excrete inconclusive reality and jump time tracks to escape’  
‘Bit hard to excrete anything when you’re boiled with rice, Doctor.’  
‘Good point.’ The Doctor stroked his chin in thought. ‘Very good point, opening discreet pockets of irregularity is all well good when you less than 2 inches long but to leave enough juice behind to relocate an entire human…’  
‘And why leave the clothes behind?’ Andy reminded him.  
‘They’re beetles, they don’t wear clothes.’  
‘Then how do they know what they are?’ Andy persisted but the Doctor’s mind had already left the subject and he was rooting in the cupboards muttering ‘saucepan’ as if the implement were a particularly recalcitrant cat.  
-

Tania finally allowed her mouth to close, in unplanned synchronisation with the door behind her.   
The noise of the door clicking finally turned Helen’s head in her direction. Her features were impossible to read, crowded with conflicting emotions. The guilt she had been deferring already catching up to her now the rush had gone.  
‘What about the two metre rule?’ a voice asked. To Tania’s dismay she realised it was hers.

Spread across the bed Liv laughed, her features alight. ‘Bit late for that. I’m not exactly wearing anything I took to work if it worries you.’  
‘I’m sorry, I should…’ Helen started to apologise, pulling her hair free from Liv’s grasp. The light went out Liv’s face in that instance.   
‘Helen?’ Liv appealed to her without further need for words.  
‘This isn’t… I shouldn’t…’  
‘Look, I interrupted; I should be the one to go.’ Tania started.  
‘No.’ both women told her with equal passion, surprising each other in the process.  
‘How about I put the kettle on and you two have a talk about… things?’ Tania suggested but her voice floated insubstantially between the two.

Liv Chenka did the only thing she could think of in the moment and held out her hands to them.


	8. Phone home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Andy make headway with the missing persons case.

‘Hold this, carefully’ The Doctor instructed as he handed over the retrieved saucepan. Its contents, after a moments further foraging through his possessions were a thick foul smelling liquid that made Andy want to throw up.  
‘Oh God, what the hell is this? Smells like Roald Dahl Plaz after the six nations.’  
‘It’s a rough chemical compound not unlike stomach acid.’ The Doctor replied, his head still in a cupboard. Andy’s face turned quite green and he opted to carefully the saucepan further away.  
‘Because the driver didn’t just vanish right?’ He asked. The Doctor turned to him with a patient grin.  
‘Go on?’  
‘So just popping one of those in your mouth doesn’t activate this reality thing, yeah? It’s got to hit your stomach to kick off.’  
‘Exactly! I must say you’re really getting the hang of all this, well done. Come on!’  
Before Andy could reply the time lord had grabbed the still warm box of prawn balls and dashed back down the stairs.  
‘Now where are we going?’ Andy called after him as he gingerly followed, trying not to spill the pan over himself.  
‘Camden Road, need to see a box about a man!’

-

The thundering of feet on the stairs went unremarked behind the door of 1a.   
Since Tania had surrendered her bedroom for Liv’s makeshift quarantine space the room itself had typically been quiet.  
On the rare occasion Tania had bumped into Liv one side of a shift or another they had always joked about it not being how she expected to get her into her bed.   
Now she was sat on the same bed, to Liv’s left, Helen to her right. It at once felt right and terribly, terribly wrong.  
‘Comfortable?’ Liv asked, squeezing both women closer to her. The muted and mumbled responses proved the lie to either’s words. ‘Ok, I get it, sexuality in 2020 is utterly ridiculous and you both feel like there’s some massive taboo over being Trans or lesbian or both and it’s ok, I get it I really do. So yeah the chance of either of you being immediately happy with three girls in a bed was going to be pretty unlikely but we’re all adults who fancy each other, yeah? So I don’t really see the problem. Do you Helen?’

Helen raised her finger as she replied ‘actually it was the whole stay alert, quarantine thing on my mind.’  
‘Yeah mine too actually,’ Tania nodded, ‘I’m fine joining you two, I thought you were a couple anyway.’  
‘You did?’ Helen blinked as if this were news to her.  
‘You have all the signs, y’know’ Tania shrugged.  
‘I’m not at all sure that I do.’ Helen attempted to say. But after the second word Liv was kissing her again and the rest of the sentence was lost into a different dimension of possibility.  
Tania took the opportunity to reach over and undo three buttons of Helen’s blouse only to be surprised not to find a bra beneath it. 

This was the point at which Helen started back, once more flushing a curious red. The flush was visibly more than just her cheeks as freckles blossomed across her chest with the sudden contrast.  
‘I uh, I ran out of fabric for masks.’ She stuttered her entirely unneeded excuse. Tania tried to let it go but Liv was always curious.   
‘Who got that one?’

Helen went even redder.

-  
Andy stopped the car without being asked. Partly because it wasn’t the first time The Doctor had dragged him to the fake Police Box on Camden Road but mostly because the time lord was already getting out of the car before the engine was off.  
‘Why have we come all the way over here Doctor? I thought you said this thing was duff.’  
‘Not precisely, the old girl is a bit out of sorts at the moment. If she were anyway close to her best then through these doors you would see a vast, elegant room that exists in its own dimension. And that is just the start, Infinite space in there, on a good day. Well, almost infinite. They tell you it’s infinite anyway but if it _really_ were then how could jettisoning bits make us lighter? Never understood that.’  
Andy decided a ‘Righto’ might just make him stop rambling and possibly explain what all this had to do with alien prawn balls made of beetles. The Doctor, against expectation, opened the little door behind which there would normally be a phone.   
To his evident surprise and delight there was indeed a phone, hung on the back of the door panel and he congratulated the box as if it had just passed a driving test.

‘Oh, hang on. That’s what you want this acid bath for, you think you can jumpstart the inside of your box using the prawn balls, because they affect dimensions.’  
‘I wouldn’t say jumpstart but it’s one of the many variables that I hope the Tardis interface could provide us, yes.’  
‘What else, or don’t I want to know?’ Andy asked the Doctor placed the box of prawn balls inside the phone hatch and gingerly took the saucepan from him.  
‘Well, as I see it, finding the console room again is the least likely outcome. It may create a temporary doorway to wherever our missing persons have been sent.’  
‘And we go in after them, right?’ Andy nodded, relishing the potential danger.  
‘Even I wouldn’t just dive in there. What if it opens out into the vacuum of space?’  
‘Oh, right. Wasn’t thinking, sorry.’  
‘But we can take a look, if that actually happens.’  
‘Oh, should I get some rope from the boot? We could tie it round that lamppost and one of us can pull the other out.’  
‘Practical and determined. Excellent idea!’ The Doctor clapped Andy on the arm, waited a full three seconds as the officer ran back to the car and then poured his synthetic stomach acid into the box of prawn balls. ‘Just in case I am horribly wrong about all this, wouldn’t you caught in…’

The Doctor stepped back as steam billowed over him. Andy thundered back with a rope over his shoulder.  
‘Just couldn’t wait could you? We’ve talked about procedure…’ Andy was interrupted as the Tardis door opened to reveal a bemused 20 year old with brilliant purple hair. They staggered out and fell into Andy’s arms. He was very glad to still be wearing gloves. ‘Where did you spring from then?’  
‘Our missing persons list Sergeant. I do believe this is Miss Muthrathee from the other side of Richmond Park.’  
This was the point at which Andy realised his charge was stark naked and that blankets would be more use than rope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think there is likely only one chapter left here. 'The plot' is resolved but I think we all need to see whats happened with the ladies.


	9. Home is where the hearts are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liv vents, Andy does the legwork. Rinse and repeat.

Helen Sinclair watched Liv and Tania kiss. It was passionate, it was erotic. But something was off. Liv’s body was tense in all the wrong places. Helen reached out a hand to the taut shoulder in front of her, following its outline with the most delicate touch.  
Her concentration was so complete she failed to notice her partners turn to watch her.  
‘What? You have seen her nude before, right?’ Tania asked. She was more amused than frustrated.  
‘Yes, which is how I know something is wrong. You’re so tense Liv... are you sure you’re ok with this?’  
‘Course I’m ok, I asked you both didn’t I?’ Liv sat back against the pillow, pulling her muscle away from Helen’s touch. Helen raised her eyebrow, just so.  
‘Liv Chenka.’ She said with the tone that included unspoken commands to tell the truth.

‘Please, Helen, just let me have this. Today has been…’  
‘Trying?’ Tania suggested.  
‘I was the one who watched our delivery driver turn to smoke.’ Helen defended, ignoring Tania’s exclamation of ‘What?’

‘One kid, Helen? Sure it was upsetting for you but I’ve watched 14 people just stop breathing in the last 17 hours. I held a child’s hand through my gloves while they cried into a phone because their parents aren’t allowed into the building. I’ve been spat at by a teenager because I couldn’t tell them where to sit in a corridor that they shouldn’t even be in!’ She took a shuddering breath before continuing with a little less fervour ‘Until you pounced on me I haven’t had physical contact with another human being for 2 months. That’s gone now, that’s the past. And I want to move forward, with both of you.’  
Liv let them envelope her in understanding embraces and soft kisses that wiped away the tears she didn’t even know she was crying.

-  
The Doctor was performing a reasonably good medical service as Andy tried to make sense of the 23 people who had stumbled naked from the Police Box. Some people they didn’t even have in the missing persons list, people who hadn’t been taken from within the m25 at all.

If Andy’s notes were correct then the Baker Street delivery driver was the 19th of those.  
He had arranged an ambulance and paramedic team and taken charge even without a clue as to how to explain where the people had been. 

As he checked everyone’s details he found a surprisingly consistent, if unlikely, tale of kidnap by slave traders. Drugs and steam as if they were being held in a sauna to stop them escaping.  
Andy frowned.  
The Doctor looked innocent and did his best not to interfere. Andy wondered quite where he had found the bags of peanuts the time lord was sharing around.

-

Tania’s alarm beeped distantly and she groggily shot out her arm to grab the phone and silence it. Her hand closed around hair and, for the briefest moment, she worried someone was stealing her phone.  
Helen yelped at the tugged hair and rolled closer to Tania, just as groggy and confused.  
‘It shows you two haven’t been used to sharing a room recently.’ Liv smirked from the end of the bed. She was already fully dressed and was carefully peeling open a fresh pair of gloves before heading to work.  
‘Oh god.’ Was all Helen could supply as she sat bolting upright.  
‘Hey, we weren’t that bad were we?’ Tania frowned.  
‘We left the Doctor with a mystery, he could be anywhere!’ she had started to pull on a top before realising it was Tania’s and handing it over.  
‘Relax. I heard him go upstairs about half an hour ago muttering about dormice.’ Liv calmed her friend.  
‘You’ve been up for half an hour?’ Tania questioned.  
‘Uh huh, mostly watching you two sleep’ she teased. ‘And now I have lives to save.’  
Helen looked Liv in the eyes. Both knew the conversation unspoken: about staying and duty and giving back and fear. Helen nodded and went back to dressing.  
‘Has anyone seen my knickers?’ She asked as Liv innocently wolf whistled on the way out of the door.

Liv Chenka slipped quietly to the front door of the Baker Street flats. She moved directly from the door to her room working her fingers into the fresh latex gloves.  
Only then did she fit her face mask, after adding a clean filter. She opened the door to be met by the worn face of Sergeant Andy Davison.  
‘How’s it going? Come to arrest the Doctor?’  
‘Not this time. We got 'em all back, but I have NO idea how. Just got to try and make sense of events for my report.’  
‘Good luck with that. Being round the Doctor, you tend to leave sense at the door. Even in here.’  
‘I have come to notice that yeah. Have you seen Tania? I tried to call her but it went to answer phone.’  
‘I have actually. She and Helen have been helping me out. Reminding me why I’m going to work, who I’m really protecting. Give it half an hour I’m sure she’ll pick up then. Long night, y’know?’  
Andy nodded, referencing only his own long night of paperwork and socially distanced missing persons relocation. It would be another 45 minutes before he realised what Liv was actually talking about with a surprised ‘Bloody Hell!’

Liv carried on down Baker Street to the Bus stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you have it. I still haven't finished the Stranded box set yet but this was the story lockdown was making me tell.  
> I have a dear friend in the NHS, and another who was key worker in a different field. Their experiences have fed this tale with frustration and the oblique pain of numbers when dealing with the death toll.


End file.
